Extreme Obsessive Compulsive Road Tripping

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Monthly Archives: December 2011

Fudge does not melt. Do not be taken in by those places advertising fudge that won’t melt. They’ve added some kind of corn syrup or something like that to it. It won’t ever melt. Four thousand years from now, it will look the same. It becomes a whole other food. It’s not even really fudge anymore. Some sort of crispy, crunchy, Tootsie Roll mash. The texture is wrong. The taste is wrong. And fudge doesn’t melt anyway! I’ve left it out in the car for hours when it was over 100 degrees outside. It was still in the same shape as when I left it. It’s not like a Hershey bar or something. It’s fudge. It has its own ways. Respect the fudge. Also, the way you can tell if you are buying the best fudge from a candy store is if they give you a fudge knife. I have also gotten fudge spoons and other plastic fudge implements. If they do not give you a fudge implement, beware. It’s probably not the best.

If you’re over at the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, drop by the Mountain Farm Museum on the Oconaluftee River. It’s a bunch of late 1800s Appalachian farm buildings and some farm animals. If you’re into that sort of antiques, it’s very nice there. What’s really cool is that it’s free; you can just walk through and look at everything.

I’ve started using Pinterest for trip planning. We’ll see how it goes. The pinboard is called Places we want to go on RoadTrip 2012. It’s an interesting way to look at the different destinations, using mainly photos. I’ve given collaboration rights to Benjamin so he can add places also. Once I get Terry set up on Pinterest, he can add places also. Yeah, right…

Don’t expect everything to be well sorted and in a convenient location in the vehicle even if you make an effort to do that before you leave. As you discover the most convenient locations for everything, plan to spend the first (and maybe the second) night at the first motel/hotel stop organizing the vehicle. You will realize what needs to go where. Organize as you go. The luggage might also need to be rearranged.
You will live in your vehicle for a large percentage of your trip so make sure it will work for you.

Something I really want to see — or I should say hear — is the musical road in Lancaster, California. It’s one of only four musical roads in the world. It has grooves cut in it that play the William Tell Overture (you know, the Lone Ranger song) when you drive down it. It’s called the Civic Musical Road, and it’s on Avenue G between 30th Street West and 40th Street West. Groovy!

View Musical Road in a larger map
If we make it down the Civic Musical Road, I will update this post.

Step One… Where in the U.S. do we want to visit? What do we want to see? What do we want to do? We’ve already decided on Out West (when will we ever get back to Florida?). We need to get in good visits with Aunt Toad up in northern California and Cousin Linda out in southern California. So, it’s time to make a list. We’ll just start with California since we know that’s our farthest destination.

I say “we” because Benjamin is helping me plan this trip. It will help him earn his Traveler’s Badge in Cub Scouts. Besides, I shouldn’t have to be the only one planning these things.

Yep! It’s that time of year again! Time to start planning next year’s vacation. It’s cold and harsh outside, and I would like to be somewhere warm and fun right now, but with a kid in school, that’s just not possible. So, I don’t get to quench my thirst for travel in the winter months — if I did, I would be in Key West (where I still haven’t been) or maybe southern California, away from this continental climate — but the next best thing is thinking about it really hard. It’s one thing to go look at pictures of places you want to visit to cheer you up during the doldrums of winter, but it’s extra good knowing that you are going to visit the places you are looking at later in the year. OK, so this is sounding ridiculous. But it works. So! Benjamin and I are planning Weatherford Vacation 2012.